Guillermo Del Toro says Prometheus killed his Mountains of Madness`

Director Guillermo Del Toro has revealed that his personal dream project, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, may finally be dead once and for all. And Ridley Scott killed it.

As previously reported, Del Toro spent 12 years developing a big-screen version of Lovecraft’s classic novella only to see Universal Pictures pull the plug last year after balking at the film’s R-rated horror content and massive $150 million budget. But although Del Toro still held out hope at the time of getting the movie made some day, that hope may now have faded for good.

The reason? In a post on the message boards at his official website, Del Toro says that Ridley Scott’s upcoming sci-fi/horror epic Prometheus is to blame because both stories share similar themes and even scenes. Del Toro wrote:

“Prometheus started filming a while ago—right at the time we were in preproduction on PACIFIC RIM…The title itself gave me pause—knowing that ALIEN was heavily influenced by Lovecraft and his novella. This time, decades later with the budget and place Ridley Scott occupied, I assumed the greek metaphor alluded at the creation aspects of the HPL book. I believe I am right and if so, as a fan, I am delighted to see a new RS science fiction film, but this will probably mark a long pause—if not the demise—of ATMOM.”

When asked on the board whether At the Mountains of Madness could actually benefit and become viable again if Prometheus becomes a huge hit, Del Toro responded:

Same premise. Scenes that would be almost identical.

He later added:

Both movies seem to share identical set pieces and the exact same BIG REVELATION (twist) at the end. I won’t spoil it.

So even if Prometheus is a blockbuster and proves that a dark, R-rated sci-fi film can make money (and yes, it’s now officially rated R), Del Toro seems to think the films are too closely related for At the Mountains of Madness to see the light of day (by the way, avoid reading Mountains until you see Prometheus, if what Del Toro says about the ending is true).

Meanwhile, Del Toro is busy right now with his giant robots-vs.-monsters epic, Pacific Rim, but we’re not ready to give up hope on Mountains yet, even if he is. Would you like to see Del Toro finally make his dream movie, maybe a few years after Prometheus has come and gone?